Several alternative devices currently exist for removing wrinkles from clothing, linens, curtains, upholstery, fabrics and other similar items. Examples of such devices include presses, irons/ironing boards and garment steamers. Each of these devices provides varying levels of wrinkle removal and convenience of use.
Generally, a press includes two large flat surfaces that are connected together by a hinge or other similar connection. Items are located between the two surfaces and the surfaces are compressed together. Steam is often injected between the compressed surfaces to aid in wrinkle removal. A press is desirable in that it generally removes wrinkles from an entire garment, or a large portion of the item, all at one time, and provides clean, long-lasting creases. Nevertheless, presses are very bulky and generally only well-suited for removing wrinkles from a limited variety of items such as pants, which can be folded in half along a crease.
Irons are less bulky, and generally more versatile than presses. An iron is usually used in conjunction with an ironing board which supports the item being ironed in a horizontal position. Generally, a section of the item is laid out flat on the horizontal ironing board and the hot iron (often steaming) is moved across the item to remove wrinkles as the item is compressed between the iron and the ironing board. In this manner an iron and ironing board function similar to a press for a smaller portion of the item. Ironing can be very tedious as the item being ironed must often be repositioned several times on the ironing board to remove all wrinkles. Use of an iron can result in damage, such as scorching, to the item being ironed if the iron is left at a single position for an excessive amount of time. In addition, the ironing board itself is very bulky and cumbersome to use.
An alternative to ironing, which eliminates the use of an ironing board and which eliminates the potential for damage to the wrinkled item, is the garment steamer. A garment steamer produces a large volume of steam that is expelled through a hand-held nozzle. Due to the thermo-dynamic properties of the steam, which rises when exposed to the cooler air of the environment surrounding the wrinkled item, garment steamers generally require that the wrinkled items be supported vertically instead of horizontally. Thus, items such as shirts, pants and other garments are generally supported vertically by clothing hangers when a garment steamer is used for wrinkle removal. The steam penetrates and relaxes the fabric to remove the wrinkles. Sometimes the user of the garment steamer will aid the steam in removing wrinkles by tugging on the bottom of the item to stretch the fabric. Although garment steamers are much faster and easier to remove the majority of wrinkles from an item than an iron, it is difficult to provide as crisp an appearance as can be obtained when the item is compressed between the iron and ironing board (or when pressed). This is particularly the case when an item contains excessively stubborn wrinkles. Nevertheless, the need to support wrinkled items vertically during steaming makes the use of an ironing board difficult, if not impossible. Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide an improved method of removing wrinkles and a device to aid in compressing an item that is hung vertically during wrinkle removal by a garment steamer.